<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" href="lib.css" type='text/css' />
<link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../icons/pyfav.png" type="image/png" />
<link rel='start' href='../index.html' title='Python documentation Index' />
<link rel="first" href="lib.html" title='Python library Reference' />
<link rel='contents' href='contents.html' title="Contents" />
<link rel='index' href='genindex.html' title='Index' />
<link rel='last' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
<link rel='help' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
<link rel="next" href="optparse-defining-options.html" />
<link rel="prev" href="optparse-creating-parser.html" />
<link rel="parent" href="optparse-reference-guide.html" />
<link rel="next" href="optparse-defining-options.html" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name='aesop' content='information' />
<title>14.3.3.2 Populating the parser</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="navigation">
<div id='top-navigation-panel' xml:id='top-navigation-panel'>
<table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="14.3.3.1 creating the parser"
  href="optparse-creating-parser.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="14.3.3 reference Guide"
  href="optparse-reference-guide.html"><img src='../icons/up.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Up one Level' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="14.3.3.3 defining options"
  href="optparse-defining-options.html"><img src='../icons/next.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Next Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
  href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Contents' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index"
  href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Index' width='32' /></a></td>
</tr></table>
<div class='online-navigation'>
<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="optparse-creating-parser.html">14.3.3.1 Creating the parser</a>
<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="optparse-reference-guide.html">14.3.3 Reference Guide</a>
<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="optparse-defining-options.html">14.3.3.3 Defining options</a>
</div>
<hr /></div>
</div>
<!--End of Navigation Panel-->

<h3><a name="SECTION0016332000000000000000"></a><a name="optparse-populating-parser"></a>
<br>
14.3.3.2 Populating the parser
</h3>

<p>
There are several ways to populate the parser with options.  The
preferred way is by using <code>OptionParser.add_option()</code>, as shown in
section&nbsp;<a href="optparse-tutorial.html#optparse-tutorial">14.3.2</a>, the tutorial.  <tt class="method">add_option()</tt> can be called in one of two
ways:

<ul>
<li> 
pass it an Option instance (as returned by <tt class="function">make_option()</tt>)

<p>
</li>
<li> 
pass it any combination of positional and keyword arguments that are
acceptable to <tt class="function">make_option()</tt> (i.e., to the Option constructor),
and it will create the Option instance for you

<p>
</li>
</ul>

<p>
The other alternative is to pass a list of pre-constructed Option
instances to the OptionParser constructor, as in:
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
option_list = [
    make_option("-f", "--filename",
                action="store", type="string", dest="filename"),
    make_option("-q", "--quiet",
                action="store_false", dest="verbose"),
    ]
parser = OptionParser(option_list=option_list)
</pre></div>

<p>
(<tt class="function">make_option()</tt> is a factory function for creating Option instances;
currently it is an alias for the Option constructor.  A future version
of <tt class="module">optparse</tt> may split Option into several classes, and <tt class="function">make_option()</tt>
will pick the right class to instantiate.  Do not instantiate Option
directly.)

<p>

<div class="navigation">
<div class='online-navigation'>
<p></p><hr />
<table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="14.3.3.1 creating the parser"
  href="optparse-creating-parser.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="14.3.3 reference Guide"
  href="optparse-reference-guide.html"><img src='../icons/up.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Up one Level' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="14.3.3.3 defining options"
  href="optparse-defining-options.html"><img src='../icons/next.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Next Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
  href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Contents' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index"
  href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Index' width='32' /></a></td>
</tr></table>
<div class='online-navigation'>
<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="optparse-creating-parser.html">14.3.3.1 Creating the parser</a>
<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="optparse-reference-guide.html">14.3.3 Reference Guide</a>
<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="optparse-defining-options.html">14.3.3.3 Defining options</a>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
</div>
<!--End of Navigation Panel-->
<address>
See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes.
</address>
</body>
</html>
